Health and fitness are one significant focus of a majority of people. Health and fitness are attributed to diet, exercise, and daily routines. A major hurdle in the creation of a lifestyle that is conducive to improved health and fitness is a daunting psychological effect of exposure to data, such as weight, caloric intake, calories burned, and the like.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found that nearly 7 in 10 adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese (69%, 2011-2012). The market for weight-loss which includes diet books, diet drugs and weight-loss surgeries is estimated at $20B. Furthermore, the medical cost associated with obesity was $147B (CDC, 2008).
There has been an enormous amount of research into diet, genetics, behavior that has yielded valuable insights, strategies, and techniques for losing weight. And, there are countless approaches for tackling weight loss based on this research. However, none of these approaches has overcome the challenge of sustained weight loss and improved health.
Motivation for any long-term behavioral change requires the feeling of success and progress. In the domain of weight loss there is a large gap between what people do, and how successful they feel. People can give up sweets, but any weight loss would not show up for a while, and when it does, it will be a slow progress. People can start exercising, but initially they might even gain weight. More generally, biological systems, such as out body, react slowly and in a stochastic way to any behavioral changes.
What is desired is a system that changes the type and frequency of feedback to give people more useful information and make them celebrate more clearly when they are successful.
What is desired is a system to provide guidance to an individual to modify their diet, exercise routine, and daily activities to improve their overall health and fitness.